Less than a month after much-admired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster took over from Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as national security adviser, Trump's alter-ego Steve Bannon appears to be more in control of U.S. foreign policy than ever.

There is little sign McMaster will be able to restore traditional U.S. foreign policy commitments to NATO and the European Union, and every indication that Bannon’s shadowy Strategic Initiatives Group, denounced by two national security experts as "dangerous hypocrisy," is driving U.S. policy.

McMaster, a lieutenant general with a reputation as an intellectual, was perhaps the last-gasp hope of Washington’s foreign policy professionals against the radical ambitions of the Trump administration. He was seen as a man who could speak unpopular truths to Trump and block Bannon’s improvisations while restoring a degree of continuity to U.S. foreign policy under Obama and Bush.

Losing Ground

No sooner had Flynn been fired over undisclosed meetings with a Russian diplomat, it was reported that McMaster would impose order on Flynn’s chaotic NSC, purging ideologues and removing Bannon from the National Security Council as urged by Admiral Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"Given the gravity of the issues the NSC deals with, it is vital that that body not be politicized, and Bannon's presence as a member of that body politicizes it instantly," Mullen said.

McMaster urged Trump not to use the term “radical Islamic terrorism,” arguing, along with virtually every other U.S. military leader, that the phrase only alienates friendly Muslims and increases the risk to U.S. personnel stationed in Islamic countries without providing any military or political advantages.

McMaster’s influence has been fading ever since. There would be no “purge” at NSC, an unnamed senior White House official told Foreign Policy. “Key NSC officials focused on the Middle East and other vital areas will keep their positions in the near term,” the official said.

Bannon remains on the NSC’s Principals Committee, while the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is only a part-time participant.

Trump pointedly ignored McMaster’s advice and denounced “radical Islamic terrorism” in his address to the Congress, much to the satisfaction of deputy national security adviser Sebastian Gorka. A lightly credentialed acolyte of Bannon, Gorka seems to have more influence with Trump than McMaster, a decorated lieutenant general.

While Colin Kahl, former national security adviser to Vice-President Joe Biden, recently expressed hope that an "axis of adults" can take control of Trump’s foreign policy, all indications are that the “axis of ideologues,” led by Bannon and Gorka, are ascendant.

What SIG does

The Strategic Initiatives Group is emerging as Bannon’s conduit for aiding the populist right in Europe. Described as a "White House think tank," SIG is run by Chris Liddell, formerly chief financial officer at a Hollywood talent agency. The group's mission is described as supporting Trump administration collaboration with “private forums.”

In practice, that seems to mean Liddell will assist in marketing the message of the chauvinist European right.

Last week, Gorka signaled the ascendant ideology by endorsing a white nationalist opus by Georgetown University professor Joshua Mitchell in the debut issue of a policy journal called American Affairs.

For globalists, Mitchell writes, "political justice involved material growth made possible by global management and the identity debt-points that global elites dispensed to this or that oppressed 'identity' group as a consequence of past infractions or of the irredeemable fault of others—typically (the imaginary category of) White People."

"The dark Protestant machinations about human freedom and pride that drove President Bush and President Obama, respectively, make no appearance in the thinking of Trump," Mitchell writes. "He will ask of foreign nations, simply, are they going to be allies or not; and will America be able to win with or without them?"

In other words, Europeans who favor economic integration, ethnic pluralism and military deterrence of Russia are no longer regarded as U.S. allies.

“Trump has made clear that he’s at best indifferent, if not openly hostile to the modern European project, and Bannon has indicated that anti-E.U. populists have a friend in the White House,” writes American conservative James Kirchick in the German daily, FAZ.

Bannon approved of the visit of French far-right leader Marine Le Pen to Trump Tower in January. He published Dutch anti-immigration leader Geert Wilders in Breitbart News. And now he seems to be targeting Angela Merkel, the pro-immigration German prime minister who has emerged as the de facto leader of Europe, if not the free world. Merkel, who faces elections this fall, certainly sees Bannon's media strategy as a threat.

“We shouldn’t underestimate what’s happening on the internet,” Merkel said in a speech to the German parliament last week. “Opinions today are formed differently than 25 years ago. Fake pages, bots, and trolls can distort views.”

Not coincidentally, <a href="http://Breitbart.com" rel="nofollow">Breitbart.com</a> is said to be opening a Berlin bureau later this year.

While Bannon often talks in apocalyptic terms about war between the Christian West and Islam, his initial moves in the National Security Council are more political than militaristic. Through SIG, Bannon seeks to midwife a more nationalist and Christian Europe, as a prelude to escalating a “clash of civilizations" war against Islam.

In this geopolitical gambit, Bannon and company are setting the course, while McMaster and the “adults” of the Washington policy elite look increasingly irrelevant.

I’d like to begin by thanking President Trump for nominating me for the position of Director of National Intelligence – I am humbled by his confidence in me, and will work tirelessly to lead the world’s finest intelligence enterprise.

Before the start of business, Just Security provides a curated summary of up-to-the-minute developments at home and abroad. Here’s today’s news.

TRUMP’s WIRETAP CLAIMS

The President is “extremely confident” that the Justice Department will come up with evidence to support his claim that his predecessor ordered the wiretapping of Trump Tower during the presidential election, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer informed reporters yesterday, Morgan Chalfant reporting at the Hill.

The FBI will “screw up big time” if they fail to answer a letter requesting that they hand over any potential applications for a warrant to wiretap Trump Tower or related court documents, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters, NBC News’ Frank Thorp V tweeted yesterday.

The claim that a UK spy agency conducted surveillance on President Trump by Fox News analyst Andrew Napolitano was dismissed by a British security official speaking to Reuters’ Mark Hosenball.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION FOREIGN POLICY

Jason Greenblatt rounded off his visit to the Middle East yesterday with commitments from both Israel and Palestine to advance “a genuine and lasting peace,” the AP reports.

“This is a good start.” Jason Greenblatt’s visit to sound out Israeli and Palestinian leaders on the prospects for regional peace received generally positive reviews from both sides yesterday, Ruth Eglash reports at the Washington Post.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will meet with shared anxiety over a belligerent North Korea but no agreement about how to deal with it on his first trip to Asia this week, where he hopes to forge cooperation with Japan, South Korea and China against the threat posed by North Korea. Matthew Pennington writes at the AP.

Tillerson’s mission in Asia should be the build support for a plan to contend with the North Korean threat, which should involve a negotiated settlement that first halts and then rolls back the elusive country’s nuclear program, according to former deputy secretary of state Antony J. Blinken writing at the New York Times.

Increased financial penalties on Chinese companies who support North Korea’s weapons programs are being considered by the Trump administration, Jay Solomon reports at the Wall Street Journal.

A “thorny” list of issues stand between US-China relations ahead of President Xi Jinping’s visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, Chinese officials reportedly pushing for the meeting to take place at that location because it would be more relaxed and informal than the White House. Mark Landler writes at the New York Times.

A personnel decision by National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster to oust a key intelligence operative was overturned by the President at the behest of Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner, Kenneth P. Vogel and Eliana Johnson report at POLITICO.

Any victory under Trump’s strategy to defeat the Islamic State will be fleeting, warn Frederick Kagan and Kimberly Kagan at the Wall Street Journal.

The Trump administration’s rationale for mulling exiting the UN Human Rights Council is revealed in a letter from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to nine non-profit organizations obtained by Foreign Policy’s Colum Lynch and John Hudson.

If President Trump pulls out of the UN Human Rights Council it will give Russia, China and Iran a free pass to rewrite the global rules on human rights, suggests Suzanne Nossel at Foreign Policy.

“Give Rex Tillerson a chance.” Will Inboden at Foreign Policy decries the spate of articles denouncing the fledgling Secretary of State’s efforts so far, arguing it’s too soon to make a judgement.

The Trump administration’s worrying emerging weapon against its political adversaries is budget cuts, those aimed at the State Department, UN peacekeeping and others saving small sums of money but only by cutting out insurance programs that would be very useful during a foreign policy emergency. Daniel W. Drezner writes at the Washington Post.

The TRUMP CABINET’S RELATIONSHIP WITH RUSSIA

FBI Director James Comey has said privately that his agency may provide a “clearer explanation” of any investigation by his agency of Russian meddling in the election today, according to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Seung Min Kim reporting at POLITICO.

Sen. Lindsey Graham’s Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism will seize the spotlight today during a public hearing on Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 election, and while the subcommittee lacks the resources and access that the House and Senate Intelligence Committees enjoy, its Republican chair is a fierce critic of Donald Trump who has no issues with bucking party leaders to get to the heart of the matter, write Austin Wright and Seung Min Kim at POLITICO.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley will hold up the confirmation vote for deputy attorney general nominee Rod J. Rosenstein until FBI Director James Comey briefs his panel about investigations into alleged collusion between the Trump administration and Russia, he said yesterday, Karoun Demirjian reporting at the Washington Post.

Legislation designed to support the Department of Justice’s ability to investigate Kremlin-backed news agency RT America, which she believes is “coordinating with the Russian government to spread misinformation and undermine our democratic process,” was introduced by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) yesterday, the Hill’s Jordain Carney reports.

We are not yet at the point where an independent investigation of President Trump and his campaign’s relationship with Russia is necessary, the US’ constitutional system being more than sufficient for the time being, writes Jack Goldsmith at the New York Times.

The MUSLIM BAN

A hearing will take place today in which the Seattle judge who issued the broadest block on the initial travel ban will consider blocking the revised order before it takes effect at midnight tonight, Josh Gerstein reports at POLITICO.

Top Trump adviser Stephen Miller’s disclosure to Fox News last month that the revised travel ban isn’t much different from the old one may make it easier to sue the order, Betsy Woodruff suggests at The Daily Beast.

SYRIA

Conflicting information on whether rebel groups will attend talks with the Syrian government in Kazakhstan was offered by rebel representatives and Kazakh officials, the AP reports.

At least nine people were killed in air strikes on Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province today, Reuters reports.

Syrian airstrikes – not rebels – severed water supplies to 5.5 million people in Damascus, the UN concluded yesterday, Nick Cumming-Bruce reporting at the New York Times.

The “weaponization” of healthcare in Syria has profound and dangerous implications for medical neutrality in conflict zones, according to a report for the Lancet Commission on Syria, Sarah Boseley reports at the Guardian.

IRAQ

Iraqi forces set their sights on reaching the Grand Mosque in Mosul’s Old City today, Iraq’s prime minister saying the battle for the city was reaching its final stages. Patrick Markey and John Davison report at Reuters.

Iraqi government-vetted tribal forces fighting the Islamic State receive training on the Law of Armed Conflict from lawyers attached to the coalition’s special operation forces, explains US Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class John Fischer at Central Command.

New talks on reducing tensions in the Korean Peninsula were called for by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang today, the AP reports.

US, Japanese and South Korean warships began two days of drills aimed at improving response to ballistic missiles yesterday, Emily Tamkin reports at Foreign Policy.

No one has any idea how to handle North Korean leader Kim Jong-un or contain his escalating belligerence, writes Roula Khalaf at the Financial Times.

EUROPE and TURKEY

Turkey’s President Erdoğan held Holland responsible for the Srebrenica massacre, the worst genocide in Europe since WWII, yesterday, as the row over Turkish ministers addressing pro-Erdoğan rallies in the Netherlands continued, Jon Henley reports at the Guardian.

Turkey is “completely detached from reality,” European Council President Donald Tusk said today. [BBC]

CYBERSECURITY, PRIVACY and TECHNOLOGY

WikiLeaks is in contact with a variety of tech companies about security vulnerabilities revealed in CIA documents the site has yet to release, it said yesterday, Joe Uchill reporting at the Hill.

The government’s recording of former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s phone call with the Russian ambassador to the US seems about to become a flashpoint in the fight over reauthorization of a controversial provision in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that allows the warrantless collection of Americans’ personal data, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) arguing in a letter to House Intelligence Committee chair Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) that changes are required. Katie Bo Williams reports at the Hill.

A new agreement over the New York Police Department’s surveillance of Muslim citizens by Judge Haight of Federal District Court in Manhattan strengthens oversight in a way that will serve as a check on illegal tactics while giving the department the freedom it needs to pursue legitimate counterterrorism investigations, concludes the New York Times editorial board.

A decision on whether to continue with the preliminary investigation of WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange over alleged rape will be made after Swedish prosecutors have obtained a full translation of an interview conducted last year, they said today, Reuters reporting.

The “real shocker” in the WikiLeaks’ leak of CIA documents is, once again, that the government can’t keep secrets, writes David Ignatius at the Washington Post.

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS

Russia has promised military assistance to the parliament based in Libya’s east, the speaker of the parliament said today. [AP]

Legislation to reopen the special immigration program for Afghans who aided US forces will be introduced by leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee today, POLITICO’s Gregory Hellman reports.

A decision not to toss out the case of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl over comments made by President Trump during the election was upheld by a three-judge panel in an Army appeals court, Rebecca Kheel reports at the Hill.

A Jordanian woman imprisoned in Israel for her role in a 2001 suicide attack on a Jerusalem restaurant is facing fresh charges in the US, Aruna Viswanatha reports at the Wall Street Journal.

“Fake news” is simply a recent name for deception and propaganda. While the term propaganda is often associated with Orwellian images of big government, we now live in an age where we don’t have to worry about just one big brother.

»The Early Edition: March 15, 201715/03/17 15:09 from Mike Nova's Shared NewsLinksmikenova shared this story from Just Security. Zoë Chapman Before the start of business, Just Security provides a curated summary of up-to-the-minute developments at home and abroad. Here’s today’s news. TRUMP’s WIRETAP CLAIMS The Pres...

»The FBI “Peek Squad” - Townhall15/03/17 14:57 from Mike Nova's Shared NewsLinksmikenova shared this story from fbi - Google News. Townhall The FBI “Peek Squad” Townhall Specifically at issue is evidence that the FBI actively worked with Geek Squad employees to train them on how to identify and report suspicious com...

»Today's Headlines and Commentary15/03/17 14:48 from Mike Nova's Shared NewsLinksmikenova shared this story from Lawfare - Hard National Security Choices. The Washington Post informs us that the Justice Department has issued indictments for two Russian FSB officers and two criminal hackers for the theft of 500 millio...

»Trump's Man in Moscow - Politico13/03/17 16:00 from Mike Nova's Shared NewsLinksmikenova shared this story from Putin and American political process - Google News. Politico Trump's Man in Moscow Politico That would be unlike his new boss, whose open admiration for Putin has prompted alarm in European capitals, deris...

»Putin's rise to power - CNN13/03/17 15:52 from Mike Nova's Shared NewsLinksmikenova shared this story from Putin and the Mob - Google News. The Express Tribune Putin's rise to power CNN As the crowd grew and surrounded the building, Putin fired up the furnace and torched thousands of secret KGB files as a preca...

Reviews

Reviews

The statistical effects of the October 28 Letter | Federal Bureau of Investigation - NYT

"Many good questions could and should al-zo be asked when Mr. Comey testifies in the closed session of the House Intelligence Committee next week... Comey's overall "motivations" might be complex and and at the same time simple: the security of the country. The details of these complexities are not easy to read..." - by Michael Novakhov - 4.25.17

Gangs, Intelligence Services, and Politics

M.N.: It would be unforgivably naive to suppose that the U.S. criminal Underworld is not controlled these days by the Russian Mafia, and, in turn, by the Russian Intelligence Services. It would also be unforgivably naive to suppose that there are no messages contained in the various criminal acts, and that there are no connections between the Underworld's recent operations and the present situation in the U.S., including the present investigations. As a matter of facts and the investigative leads, they might hold and provide the most easily accessible clues. Attention, the FBI and the significant others: do access these clues.

Smoke and Fire: The Trumputkins, the Trumpumpkins, "The Tillerson Ultimatum", and bad, bad Assad

By Michael Novakhov: So, the Trump - Putin mysterious marriage is on the rocks... The unresolved issues, whatever, whoever, and however triggers the attention to them and their discussions, have to be resolved: soundly, timely, fundamentally, and the long-term; otherwise they come back and accumulate, and together with the other unresolved issues, snowball and cause the avalanches. Nobody needs this mess, enough snow jobs everywhere... That's what Mishustin thinks...

"If you really want to fight ISIS, look into its origins and essence first." - Fight Against "ISIS"

In the opinion of the great many observers, those "sham" groups are nothing more than the creations and proxies of the Russian Military Intelligence (GRU), formed on the basis of the coalitions of the disaffected ex- Baathist Saddam's military (and first of all, military intelligence officers, historically tied with the GRU), with the "rebels-for-hire", and the Assad's Syrian Intelligence Services, which are also the proxies of the GRU.

"Trumpism" as the "social-political experiment" and the "Gang of Four"

The engineered election of Donald Trump as the U.S. President is the joint operation of the German, Russian, and Israeli Intelligence Services with the major executive and operational role played by the Russian-Jewish Mafia at the head of the International Organized Crime - by Michael Novakhov

Tillerson's Complaint:

"Lavrov won't dance with me..."

Lavrov's Response:

"My mama done tol' me... A man's a two-face..."

Vovchick "The Tarantula", why were you so "loud"?!

For Russia (or any other state), this extraordinary, unusual, demonstrative, primitive, blatant "loudness" was like digging her own grave with regard to the US - Russian relations, especially at the time when their improvement and the relief of sanctions is so desired by them, and no doubts, they would understand this very well. This peculiarity in this affair points to the possible deliberate set-up from the third party... The US - Russia - Germany triangle and the role of the revived German intelligence in it after the WW2 have to be examined under the most powerful microscope, in all their hidden details, and in the historical perspective.

Mike Nova's Shared NewsLinks Review

Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks

Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks

Howl!

The America of my dreams: Shattered. Raped.

The King Trump - by Michael Novakhov

The public prayers for His Majesty's health, wealth, and well-being, and also for the development of his additional intellectual capacities should be held no less than three times a day in all public squares, government offices, courthouses, and the places of worship, and also in all the private and public toilets, with the benefit of generating the taxable and multiple extra-flushes. Hopefully, it will flush out in due time.

The Information Age

All the relevant information at your fingertips: Information is not a commodity for sale but one of the most vital and important inalienable rights. To paraphrase Descartes: "I have access to information therefore I am". ("Information Age" - post of 11.30-21.13 | Image from: Information - Google Images)